Philippsburg

Philippsburg Castle

Seat of the European Castles Institute

	Philippsburg Castle was built by the count Philipp II. of Rhenish Hesse in 1568 -1571.
Allegedly he received the county from his father Philipp the Magnanimous because he loved the wine. The medieval Marksburg Castle seemed to be too uncomfortable for him and so he made build a new residence castle underneath the castle hill.
This castle in renaissance style served from 1583 to 1602 as widow's seat for his wife Anna Elizabeth. Later, Johann "der Streitbare" of the house of Hesse-Darmstadt resided here for eight years, from 1643 on. With the successful defence of fort Rheinfels between 1682 and 1689, the Hesses were able to beware also Marksburg Castle and Philippsburg Castle of destruction.
Unfortunately the castle fell into decay in the following years. Between 1802 and 1822 it was property of the dukes of Nassau. In 18004/05, they gave order to rebuild the western wing. 360 ° - Panorama
It was Johann Christian Herberlein who bought the complex in 1822 and made it a hotel.
Because of the construction of the railway in 1861, the bastions on the Rhine, the "Muckenturm" and other buildings in the forecourt had to be pulled down. Only the staircase of the western wing and the Gate with the renaissance gable are preserved.

In the year 1997, the German Castles association bought Philippsburg Castle to protect it from further decay but also to house in it its castles institute which was, faced to the progressive unification of Europe, renamed in European Castles Institute.